Program Management – Daily Tech Update – June 9, 2016

MICROSOFT: Microsoft Launches Planner, a Project-Management Tool Part of Office 365. Microsoft has launched Office 365 Planner, a new project-management tool for teams. The company will be rolling out Planner worldwide to Office 365 users, including Office 365 Enterprise E1–E5, Business Essentials, Premium, and Education subscription plans. The Planner tile will appear in your Office 365 app launcher, meaning Office 365 admins don’t need to take any action. Read more[VENTUREBEAT.COM]

NASA: When Project Management Really is Rocket Science: A Lesson from NASA. A recent GAO assessment of major NASA projects shows that 18 of the organization’s biggest projects received very positive reviews – with project management receiving credit for some of that success. What has proven to be extremely effective for NASA is utilizing standards and adapting tools and processes to the needs of the agency, while satisfying considerations of such leading practices as EVM, project costing, baseline establishment and blending of engineering disciplines into projects. Read the rest[FEDERALTIMES.COM]

ADVICE: 6 Ways to Be a Better Project Manager. Project management is a complex — and critical — function. Here are six pieces of advice to help project managers improve their craft. Find out more[CIO.COM]

IT CAREERS: What’s Going On with IT Hiring? Analysts have been generally cautious this year about IT hiring trends. Although the unemployment rate for IT professionals is about half the national average of 4.7%, said CompTIA, some analysts use terms ranging from “modest” to “pre-recession” to describe IT hiring. Read more[COMPUTERWORLD.COM]

BLUE MOUNTAIN DATA SYSTEMS HAS THE EXPERIENCE: 1994 to Present – U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. Responsible to the Office of Technology and Information Systems for information systems architecture, planning, applications development, networking, administration and IT security, supporting the enforcement of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act — ERISA. Within the EBSA, Blue Mountain is responsible for design, development and support for its various enforcement database management systems, as well as all case tracking and customer service inquiry systems. Blue Mountain also provides IT security services to the EBSA, in the form of FISMA Assessment and Authorization, System Security Plans, Risk and vulnerability assessments, monitoring and investigation support. Read more.